Notes from the September monthly meeting of SDFP editors and contributors.

By John Anderson

In an attempt to increase the transparency of the conversations at the San Diego Free Press and to encourage a wider variety of voices from across the region we are publishing Inside Freep to let current contributors and readers keep up with items on the agenda for discussion and for future articles. If you have thoughts or comments to add please do so in the comments section. Better yet, join us for our next contributors meeting or send your own article to contact@sandiegofreepress.org.

The September monthly contributors meeting for the San Diego Free Press took place Wednesday, September 25, 2013, in North Park from 7 to 9 PM in an undisclosed location hereafter known as The Freep Cave. After exchanging greetings and pleasantries fourteen members of the San Diego community sat down to discuss the special election for the mayor and other topics as detailed below. The attendees hailed from across San Diego including the neighborhoods of Barrio Logan, City Heights, Hillcrest, La Jolla, Lemon Grove, Normal Heights, North Park, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, and Point Loma.

First discussed was a potential mayoral debate hosted by local community radio station KNSJ (89.1 FM out of Descanso). KNSJ was created to provide a radio presence for social justice issue. Thus the call letters KNSJ – Network for Social Justice. The debate is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, October 10th, from 6 to 8 PM at the California Western School of Law in Downtown. KNSJ is currently working on securing commitments from the 5 most prominent candidates to attend. Also being sought are panel members from Voice of San Diego, League of Women Voters, La Prensa, San Diego Free Press and CityBeat.

Next the conversation turned to the mayoral election to be held November 19th, less than two months away. For essentially the rest of the evening this was the topic at hand, ranging across a wide variety of topics. The major theme was a discussion of the questions that should be asked to candidates, whether in debates, interviews, or candidate questionnaires. Below are a sampling of questions posited by the group.

What kind of role would you play in SANDAG? What specific policies would you promote?

How do you fund infrastructure?

What role do you see for CivicSD going forward?

Would you support citizen representation on the MTS board?

Where do you stand on the Barrio Logan plan update?

Do you intend to continue the free bus pass program for students implemented during Mayor Filner’s time in office?

Would you support an underground transit option from El Cajon (the city) to Downtown San Diego?

How do you measure success of transit systems? (Farebox receipts, ridership numbers, etc.)

Have you ridden the #7 bus?

How often per week do you walk, bike, take transit, or carpool to work?

What is your plan for Balboa Park and Plaza de Panama?

What is the official stand of the City of San Diego on rising sea levels? What is your plan for the Climate Action Plan previously started?

Are you in favor of revising the Municipal Code to allow for the ‘Jacobs Plan’ parking and road realignment in Balboa Park?

What do you know about city bond debt limit?

Would you be in favor of creating a public bank to fund projects in San Diego?

Comments from discussion

Who are the people running – look at their voting records (if they have held elected office)

Don’t forget the northern parts of the city (San Pasqual area for example). Often forgotten due to geographic distance but still part of city and greatly affected by decisions at City Hall

Human trafficking in San Diego area is up 600% in 5 years

Abandoned animals are an issue, specifically in Emerald Hills, City Heights, and San Ysidro, how to deal with the cost and impact of this problem

Jack in the Box issue was as clear cut as it gets that the community (and codes, laws) were ignored. Community plans and codes don’t matter if they’re simply ignored when convenient by power players.

The group agreed to a plan to send a set of 6 questions to all of the candidates (all 11 currently qualified and running, not just the 5 ‘major’ candidates). During the discussion it was generally agreed that prioritizing topics and then selecting questions from there would be the best strategy. Potential topics include:

Neighborhoods

Transit / SANDAG

Economy / Jobs

Finances of City / Debt

Environmental / Climate Change

Crime & Safety

Balboa Park

Homelessness

The editorial board will be taking the above suggestions and whittling down the list to 6 topic areas and related questions that cover a broad swatch of community interests. If you have input on specific questions or topic areas that should be addressed (or want to voice your thoughts on any of the above) please speak up in the comments section below.

Sister publication (and mother publication of sorts, it’s complicated) OB Rag is celebrating its 6th birthday with an invite-only soiree in Ocean Beach in late October. Secret handshake also required for entrance and entry in door prize drawing.

Friend and contributor Jon Christensen passed away on August 28th. He wrote on occasion for both the OB Rag and the San Diego Free Press, writing under his initials, JEC. We remember Jon with a moment of silence and will miss his energetic presence and writings in the future.

If you would like to write for the San Diego Free Press please drop a line to contact@sandiegofreepress.org. This is an all volunteer community but all are welcome. If you’re interested but want to learn more please come join our next monthly meeting, we’d love to meet you!

John P. Anderson

John was an accountant in a former life and now devotes his time to child-rearing, reading, writing, and working to ensure that San Diego is truly America's Finest City. Interested in environmental issues, John enjoys connecting with others that want to improve the health of our world and community.
You can find John at www.johnpatrickanderson.com or on Twitter (@j_p_a_). Comments, suggestions, wisdom, and complaints are enthusiastically welcomed.

Double thanks John. SDFP contributors who are unable to make a meeting really appreciate the minutes and the editors thank you for providing them.
SDFP holds its monthly contributor meetings in various venues–we are a movable feast or wandering tribe. Pick your metaphor.
We appreciate Queen Bee’s in North Park and Ryan Brothers Coffee in Barrio Logan for making space available to us in the past. We doubly appreciate it when editors and contributors open their homes to the Freepers. This month’s Freeper Cave was a special one- five month old baby Ambrose made a brief wide-eyed appearance as our youngest host ever.

Included or not, I am very appreciative of the SDFP and all it stands for. The many contributors do a great job of covering the scene and I look forward to my daily fix each morning, Not am easy task and even though I may seem too critical at times, the very presence of this venue gives me hope that actions may be taken and supported that will actually mean something worthwhile in the future.

I didn’t know about the free bus pass for students initiated by Mayor Filner. Attended a neighborhood meeting Saturday afternoon, in PB today, with candidate Faulkner. He was asked if he would support any of Mayor Filner’s plans or initiatives. Talking in a roundabout way he is so good at (no straight answers which might pin him down to something) he pretty much said there weren’t ANY he would continue or support.

Wish I had had your list of topics prior to this meeting. Appreciate these topics you all raised.

Mayor Filner was working with Supt. Cindy Marten on students having greater access to the public libraries. Some families are reluctant to get a library card if a family member is un-documented. I am sure there are creative ways to solve this problem.

Judith’s comment hit on a guideline that I hope SDFP / KNSJ will consider for candidates joining the debate. Judith wrote: “Talking in a roundabout way he is so good at (no straight answers which might pin him down to something) “.

Debates are insulting, public demonstrations, of candidates’ disregard and disrespect for their hosts & the public. Why not attempt a shift from that for this special election?

If the group has agreed to disseminate questions to candidates in advance; demand that candidates also be prepared to respond to the question only. Hosts of the debate determine guidelines for cutting off any candidate that strays and attempts to use response time as a campaign soapbox.

If parents were to raise their offspring with similar leniency toward avoidance and deception allowed candidates. . . .well maybe that’s another major harm affecting society.

I thank you as well, John, for this summary of the meeting. As a contributor it’s not possible for me to make a lot of meetings due to family responsibilities. It’s good to be kept abreast.

I don’t know if this is the right forum for this comment, but I’m sort of disgusted with Donna Frye for her post mortem defense of herself and the other two accusers of Filner whose names escape me now – Corey something and whosiswhats. She was on KPBS I believe saying that what they did in accusing Filner was definitely the right thing as Filner was not making simple “date requests” but actually grabbed a woman’s crotch and a woman’s breast. Well, hmmm, did he grab her crotch or her breast? I don’t think so. She was told that by another woman evidently and people can lie. That’s why they have courts and judicial processes to determine those things. As it was, Frye’s comment was based on nothing but hearsay. Also, if Filner was as bad as they say he was, why didn’t they conduct a sting operation and catch him on video? Then they would have had some “real” evidence if this was such a serious situation as to run a duly elected mayor out of office. But nobody thought of that. I don’t maintain that Filner was innocent. But the processes used to discredit him and run him out of office were dubious to say the least.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’m sort of amazed that after all this time and evident success of the SDFP that there is no business aspect or dimension or arm to the SDFP. That is there is no effort to my knowledge of any attempt to make money to be blunt. I don’t think everything can or should be predicated on just volunteer efforts indefinitely.

I find it hard to understand, for instance, why all this effort was put into promoting local neighborhood businesses and restaurants while absolutely no effort, to my knowledge, was put into following up with asking them for an ad. Altruism is very noble, but I think some people, especially those who are following local politics and politicians and hard local news, should be paid especially those who have made a daily commitment.

On the one hand I think it’s great that a publication of this sort has been able to be so successful just with volunteer efforts. That means that we can be pretty successful with absolutely no budget. That’s a pretty solid base to move forward from. However, I think we should be putting a lot more effort into making the SDFP a financial success as well. If that only happens on a modest level, so what? We can still move forward as a semi-volunteer online publication.

In short too much effort is being put into attracting volunteer contributors and not enough into developing the SDFP financially so that we could pay dedicated staff.